Homecourt doesn’t seem that important to Celtics

Credit: Stuart Cahill

DOESN’T SIT WELL: With Rajon Rondo (right) nursing an injury, the Celtics could regret not using Paul Pierce in last Friday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

There are two ways to look at the Celtics’ desire for homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and, under a microscope, both views have merit.

It’s not until one takes a step back and looks at the issue in a larger frame that it becomes clear.

As it stands, the Celtics will need to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks at the Garden tonight and have the Atlanta Hawks fall at home to the Dallas Mavericks to reach the goal. That would leave the Celtics and Hawks with identical 39-27 records for the squeezed season, but get the C’s the potential extra home game based on their 2-1 head-to-head mark against Atlanta.

If things don’t work out that way, you’d have to picture the Celtics feeling a little foolish if they are forced to fly south for a Game 7. It was less than a week ago that the club gave Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett the night off in Atlanta, and with Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Mickael Pietrus out with injuries, the depleted C’s still came within five points of a victory that would come in extremely handy right about now.

Had Pierce or Garnett played and made the difference in the outcome last Friday, the Celtics would guarantee the series with the Hawks starts at the Garden by winning tonight. If Atlanta were to lose to the Mavericks, the outcome against Milwaukee wouldn’t matter.

There would be extra time to prepare — word is strong the series will open on Saturday in Atlanta and on Sunday if the C’s hold homecourt. There would be time to treat injuries in the Celts’ own facility. There might even be a chance to get in a full-squad practice unhindered by planes and buses and hotel check-ins.

And if the series somehow got dragged to its limit, the final game would be played on a parquet floor that features Red Auerbach’s autograph, not on the ancient burial ground of Doc Rivers’ jump shot (Philips Arena was built on the site of the old Omni).

The Celtics will spend this series trying to get Joe Johnson out of his comfort zone, and he’s a hell of a lot more comfortable in Atlanta. Johnson will be relied upon even more by the Hawks following yesterday’s announcement by center Al Horford that he will miss the series. Horford has missed most of the season while rehabbing from surgery on his left pectoral muscle.

The Celtics are not here to have a nice run and build on it next season. They could be almost entirely unrecognizable by the time the 2012-13 season begins. This group can only pray the future is now and not two years ago.

And if this homecourt thing is that big to the C’s, they could, assuming they don’t get the two desired results this evening, win it back in just 48 basketball minutes.

It’s a fair point that a prolonged series could work against players whose NBA odometers have rolled over a time or two, but think about it: We were saying the same thing back in 2008 when the Celts went to the limit against Atlanta and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and to six games against the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Lakers.

One of the downsides to having core players in their mid-30s is the susceptibility to injury and the additional recovery time required by those players even from just regular wear and tear. The benefit to having core players in their mid-30s is that those players don’t shake in their sneakers when their opponent is wearing white.

So if Garnett and Pierce and Allen need a bit more time to heal their wounds and catch their breath before diving into the playoffs, by all means show them to the comfy chair. The only way this strategy hurts the Celts is that they will be prevented by federal law from using any form of the word “rust.”

This Celtics tour should contain no excuses or regrets. Location cannot be an issue, particularly in a first-round series against the Hawks. If it is, then there are far greater problems.